>> for all you political and baseball fans out there who knkow the game is played every thursday here on "the cycle," i have news for you. it's raining. so we're in a delay until next thursday. the incumbent is leading into october in the debates. they're both in battleground virginia, my home state today. we'll have more later. since it is thursday, it's time for presidential football. >> personal foul, number 93, red. >> the officials lost control of the philadelphia/baltimore game among others. >> yes, unless you are buried under a rock, you know the nfl has kicked the replacement refs to the curb. >> the packers playing at the goal line. as wilson scrambles to keep it alive. the game's final play is to the

end zone, which is fumbled by tate with jennings simultaneous. who has it? who do they give it to? touchdown! one guy goes on touchdown, and the other said no. >> that play is why the regular refs are back on the field starting tonight in baltimore. what does that have to do with the presidential race you ask? for nfl teams like the packers, the new regular refs can begin a reset for their season. for mitt romney it's time for another campaign reset. can the debates mean a new season for mitt and bring him closer to the end zone? our pal ed rendell joins us. governor, can rom knney do anytg to turn this race around? >> number one, governor romney has to do a terrific debate performance, especially in the first debate. number two, he needs help.

the obama campaign has to stumble or a current event that reflects badly on the president. i think the first is possibly. governor romney is a very good debater. he won almost all of the republican debates except south carolina. he's adept at debating and disciplined du disciplin disciplined debates and sounds like a president. he'll do well in the first debate. as far as the second thing happening, it's not likely. the obama campaign is doing a good job of staying safe of running out the clock. >> romney's fate is not totally in his hands at this point? >> i think so. the margin has widened enough so he can't make all that ground with a good debate performance. >> the candidates have duelling straig straight-to-camera ads out. >> president obama and i care about poor and middle class families. the difference is my policies will make things better for

them. >> if i could sit down with you in your living room or around the kitchen table, here's what i would say. today i believe that as a nation we are moving forward again. we have much more to do. >> so governor romney trying to convince voters he really does care about the middle class and poor and he has solutions for them. the president reiterating his message from the dnc laying out awe four-point plan for the country. what do you make for the two ads? >> the problem for governor romney is people are always skeptical of promises politicians make on the campaign trail, myself included, everyone. they got a glimpse of governor romney in private, and their more likely to believe that was the true feelings of the governor than anything he says on the campaign trail. i think the polls have widened so much that they reflect disenchantment by americans about what governor romney said about the 47%. the president playing it safe, making the argument that things

are better by comparing it to where we were, and there's no question that's correct. it may not be the case for individual families, but for the country there's no question that's correct. the stock market has more than doubled, manufacturing jobs are increasing higher. there are many indications that the country is doing better. doesn't mean every individual is. >> governor, i want to pick up on the issue you brought up about who is the real romney in the last few days. we've heard as lot of of these words from him. empathy, care, compassion. let me show you a spot where he's talking about health care. >> don't forget, i got everybody in our state insured. 100% of the kids have health care in my state. i don't think there's anything that shows elm pat yi and care about people with that record. >> when he uses those words, he's trying to atone for what happened in boca and the 47% telling half of america i don't care about you, what you're going to do. is this smart to swim against

the grain like this, or is it too transparent? >> it's a little transparent. it's locking the barn hordoor ar the horses have escaped. i don't know if i did that well. there's probably a better cliche. it's a little too transparent. the interesting thing is governor romney should have been talking like this from the beginning. as soon as he won the primaries, he should have moved to the middle, talked about his health care plan. he's right about his health care plan. it's a terrific thing that every child in massachusetts is covered by health insurance. i tried very hard and came close in pennsylvania. that's a terrific thing, and it does show empathy for children and people too poor to afford health care. he should have pivots and gone that way in june. it's too late now and too transparent. all those words you used, how many would have been in ads in the romney cap pampaign if the tape hadn't come out.

>> the basic question is did the republicans nominate the wrong guy? i'm not asking about gingrich, santorum and all the ones that ran in the primaries. i think clearly romney is a cut above them. we have some new polling evidence this week about the particular struggles that romney is having with middle class and working class voters on basically the question of can he identify with struggles, do you think he identifies with struggles? in ohio only 38% thought he could. the number for obama is 20 points higher. romney is basically running a platform you could call a top 1% platfor platform. i think of chris christie running the on the same platform but exude something completely dirch the. do you think a guy like chris christie would have more luck selling the republican message and might be closer in the race right now? >> it's possible, but you can never do a hypothetical race. no one knows how he would have

worn through a long, drawn-out campaign. i like governor christie and support him on some initiatives. his overall persona, the bullying and tough guy, i'm not sure if that wears well over at long period of time. i'm sure how america reacts to that and how the average nonnew jersey it reacts to him on the boardwalk. you can't say things in a vacuum. i think the republicans nomin e nominated the wrong guy. the mitt romney who was governor and not the mitt romney who trying to become an extreme right-winger. he's not comfortable with it. you can see the wheels turning when he's asked questions, guys. what do i say that doesn't offend the base? good lord, governor, the base was voting genz president obama no matter who is on the ballot. the compete for the rest of us. >> let me ask you about president obama. "the washington post" gave the president for pinocchios on the

claim it was bush's fault. is romney missing opportunity to go after obama on his record and misstatements, stories i hear out of politico for one is he focused more on mistruths in the debates and the campaign. is that a good strategy? >> it's really one of the few arrows he has left. no question about it. he won't win in election by attacking president obama. he has to give the american people a clear and cojent plan why he's better and a better bet to take. it's always a risk when you turn away from an incumbent president. americans have shown their willingness to do so. the carter election and the first george bush election when bill clinton got elected, but they have to have a reason. they have to have a reason. >> isn't obama's record a good reason? should not mitt romney be talking more about that record? >> he should, but he also has to couple that with why he would be

different. what would he do? on the issue of debt that you just talked about, on the issue of debt, romney we saw softened his position on how big a tax cut he could give under the romney/ryan budget because they added up the numbers. you can't give a $5 trillion tax cut and do anything meaningful about the debt. as bill clinton said, they finally did the math. his original plan would have blown it up more than anything president obama could do. so you can't just attack. you have to say, this is what my opponent has done wrong. this is how i'll change it. and he has done a fair job. he could do a better job on what my opponent has done wrong, but he has to come up with this is how i'll change it. it's important. >> thanks so much. >> help me out with that cliche. send me an e mal-mail. all right. >> all right.

so our favorite republican missouri candidate, tom akin, aka mr. legitimate rape, looks like he's in it to win it and makes no friends. he said that claire mccass kel was more ladylike in 2006. >> that's never a good idea. don't editorialize on women and their demeanor. i'm talking to you arlen specter and todd akin. it's a bad idea. i'm shocked. when this first happened about a month ago, i thought this guy is toast. he's done. there's no way we stand for it this. i want to take the senate back as much as the next republican, but i want to do it the right way. he's not the right way. it's not because of his position on abortion. he's not founded in reality. he's not the person to lead that state. >> let me see if i could just ask you quickly, the nrsc is signalling and said they'll continue to monitor the race and he's the far more preferable candidate. they originally said they wouldn't spend any money in the

race. should they get back in or no? >> i'm surprised at that, too. you said watch the nrcc will change its tune. i did not agree. you're absolutely right. they have, and i'm disappointed. >> i agree with you that i'm shocked he's still in the race. a guy would say that junk sciency sort of thing would have other weird ideas, like i should say in this race. >> junk science. >> i want to separate crazy from being religious and feelly religiously called. when you have a guy saying god told me to run this race. if he's throwing hurdles in his way, he should continue with it. i must congratulate you that you have won our bet. i bet that he would get out. he would stay in from dpa one. >> i was on team steve let the record show. >> it's not crazy for him to stay in the race. he has a good chance of losing but he could win this race. if he had dropped out, he was a

nobody, nothing. republicans would have said nice things about him being a team player and would have forgotten about him. there's a broader issue here. this is the moment when x happened. we may look back and say this was the week that the republicans lost their chance at the senate majority. >> it's agree. todd akin will have played a huge role in this loss if romney loses. >> this was one because it was the easiest pick up with missouri. claire mccaskill was done. >> i'm not talking senate. i'm talking presidential. >> consider the other things that happened this week on the senate side. in wisconsin this was going to be a pickup for the republicans. they had tommy thompson and thet got their canada the moderate republican to win the republican nomination this year. he would to appeal to the tea party. he went and talked about i'm going to end medicare and medicaid, on tape, came out this week and toomey thompson is nine points behind his democratic opponent in wisconsin.

the other one is massachusetts. they thought they could hold is because of scott brown's personal popularity. this is the week video pops up about brown staffers taunting warren supporters. it's terrible video. if you lose those three races and you're republicans, you're not taking back the senate you may lose the senate seats. >> todd akin i don't want to win at all costs. >> both romney and obama campaigning in my home state of virginia. we have more on that with the chairman of the virginia democratic party coming up. speaking of the south, when you think hunting and nascar, you think gop, right? you might be surprised as we roll on for thursday, september 27th. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym.

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it's been a tough stretch for mitt romney. flee weeks ago both candidates were tied. obama has pulled four points ahead in the average. this isn't stopping diehard republicans who say the mainstream polls have a liberal bias. look at dickmorse.com. even rick perry is jumping on on the bandwagon. he's plugs unskewed.com. it compiles existing polling data and meshes it with the rasmussen poll and voila, big leads for romney. if you look at the unskewed.com average it has romney leading by eight points. >> it's going to be a landslide.

>> rasmussen has obama ahead by 4. i think quickly there are things to separate two different things here with theories they put out there. one is the peer con sear see side. there's a plot by the liberal media to undermine romney. >> which would never happen. >> when fox news polls are showing it, i don't know. the other thing is there's seeds of an argument about systemic bias in polls. they're getting it wrong because there's too few democrats and republicans. i've heard that from democrats in polls in 2004, the other way. i heard it from republicans in 2008, when obama was ahead, 2008 and 2010 midterms. the polls have a good track recent recently. >> the sense i have in states like ohio and virginia and florida and pennsylvania when i talk to folks, obama is ahead. i think that's clear. where i am a little skeptical is the margin by which he is ahead. if you look at 2008 was a banner year for democrats, and in

florida the population of democrats-to-re democrats-to-republicans was 3 points. you had similar numbers in ohio. politics does not move fast enough for you to have a six-point margin in a state like florida or ohio which are called swing states for a reason. so i don't think the polls you see today with these nine--point leads and ten--point leads are going to turn out on election day. that isn't as sustainable or possible feat in three years, four years. >> here's the context to add to that. in terms of the overall the margins at 9, 10 points. let's see multiple pols and the next three in florida. we can call these outliers. on the other issue and what conservatives are saying, there's too many democratic needs and republican needs, there are too few. what we see is -- this is political science found this. a lot of people we traditionally

at republicans now self-identify as independents, and a lot of people who are traditionally democratic who vote democratic in the past identify themselves assist independent to pollsters call themselves democrats again. this is a recent, emerging phenomenon. they are polling the right people, but they get more people identifying themselves as democrats and fewer identifying themselves assist republicans. you have the right poll. it looks different now because of develops in politics. >> what you take is unskewed.com seriously. >> this is a conspiracy. that's the conspiracy. >> this is a real conspiracy. it's called poll truthism. we depress the gop to suppress them so they won't turn out in november. this is a total alternate reality sort of mind trip. >> speaking of polls, though. there's another attempt -- we'll make another attempt to dissect two of the country's most misunderstood voting blocs.

nascar fans and sportsmen, s.e. is a sportswoman. you have info. i want to hear it. >> there are misconceptions about sportsmen, hunters and anglers, blood-thirsty hicks that pull the lever. this is a voting bloc democrats shouldn't take for granted because they're incredibly interested in conservation. an interesting poll from the national wildlife federation found among hunters and anglers 47%, almost half value conservation issues as the same level of importance as gun rights. you can believe 13% put gun rights below conservation efforts. hunters and fishers are land conservationists, they want sustainable waterways and populations protected. it's an interesting sort of breakdown if democrats wanted to look at sportsmen. the other group, nascar voters,

i wrote a the lot about them in 2008. they're actually not as poll larized and republican as you think. in 2008 when i was doing research, they positive broke down at 35% republican, 28% democrat, 40% women and 20% minorities. actually, we have some recent data and some good news for democrats. obama's pulled ahead among nascar voters. that's in two weeks. two weeks ago they were tied, and now obama is up 7%. it's interesting. >> i mean, that zogby poll sounds interesting, they polled 800 people. it's a little small. usually around 2,000, 3,000 people. one of the things that we see is democrats are always fighting for the white male. the blue collar white male vote. let's show a bunch of people of people doing cultural things to get those white men either hunting or drinking a beer.

there's george bush eating corn with the folks. john kerry out hunting looking a little crazy but he's trying to get that working class vote. >> as i said, nascar, don't underestimate. it's 40% women and 20% minorities. >> s.e., to your point about conservation. i ran in a rural district in virginia, and the land and water very much a part of the culture there. it's a conservative district. we found exactly what you're talking about. a sort of progressive message on environmentalism was very -- it was very well received in the district and even the republican member of congress who is down the line conservative on every other issue has had to temper and be a little more mode rate on environmental issues. >> they're misunderstood voters. there are opportunities on both sides to get them. >> we cleared it up a little bit here. up next from hunters and nascar fans from bureaucrats in

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i know i traveled around aa lot in virginia and across this country. i don't need a lot of victims. i see hard-working virginians. i see students trying to work their way through college. >> i have five things i'm going to do to get this economy going, and they're going to create 12 million jobs. i'm not cutting jobs from virginia but adding jobs to virginia. so we're going to -- >> both the president and mitt romney courting voters in virginia today. without virginia it will be almost impossible for romney to win in november.

in 2008 obama took it down with 53% of the vote with results that very nearly matched the national tally. the real clear politics average has him leading by 4.5 points. the race is close in the home state with romney holding a slight lead as recently as two weeks ago. let's bring in brian moran to see if he gives us a preview of december. thanks for joining us. >> happy to be with you. we do enjoy a lead, but if i might continue the football analogies, we need to play the entire 60 minutes. we cannot let up until the clock runs out 7:00 p.m. on november 6th. we're working very hard to make sure we deliver -- redeliver our 13 electoral votes for the next president of the united states, barack obama, and the united states senate seat tim kaine. >> i love that you're continuing our football analogy for us there. in virginia, obviously, i'm a

native virginian in the northern virginia area. a bit cultural different than the rest of the state. are the campaigning using different messages to connect with voters in different parts of the state? >> i haven't seen that. i think the president's message of investing in education and an infrastructure to create good jobs and a sustainable economy into the future resonates in four corners of commonwealth, whether in northern virginia or hampton road or southwestern virginia. i was pleased the president was in virginia beach today. hampton road is an area where our message will resonate. it's a real battleground area in hampton road. i think his message resonates. he's putting forward a message and a plan for the future. it's working in virginia. i suspect it will continue to work right up through the election. >> brian, you talk a little bit about the composition of virginia that makes it so purple? >> yeah. well, we tend to be center to

right in our politics, but we're not extreme. you have seen recently with this campaign and particularly in picking paul ryan. peel are very concerned about the future of their medicare and social security being privatized. look at the attack on women's rights. we had an attorney general's naktz commonwealth that essentially closes women's health clinics throughout virginia. those are extreme views, and you'll have reported on what the republican general assembly did in richmond this last year with ultrasound legislation, that's extreme and has people alarmed in virginia. that's why both tim kaine and president obama are enjoying support. >> chairman rand, thanks sop much for your insights on my home state, the commonwealth of virginia. >> welcome. come on back. we'd love to have you in 40 days. it's very exciting. there's a lot going on here.

>> i'm not missing the negative ads. that's the one thing. chairman rand, thanks so much. >> romney's focus in virginia seeming to be twofold. military and coal. the state is home to a million servicemen and vets and their families. as for coal, he ran this ad ahead of his victim in virginia. >> obama wages war on coal while we lose jobs to china, who is using more coal every day. now your job is in danger. >> if someone wanted to build a coal-powered plant, they can. it will bankrupt them. >> mr. president, let us keep our jobs. we can't aafford four more years. >> is it a smart strategy? the demographics have grown so much mountain northern virginia area where this is just not an issue. i think the military issue is one that plays to a broader audience in virginia. in my district we were home to quantico and we had a lot of

military in the southern end. you have the northern virginia military folks and southern military folks. virginia, the president has been pulling away. the 47% comments have been devastating there as in other places. >> can you talk about the demographics of virginia? it's urban, southern. there's a lot of hispanics moving in there. it's a dynamic state, right? >> it is. the suburbs have grown quickly, and that's the biggest thing behind going purple and a huge growth in the latino population. the other thing is the senate contest between tim contain and george allen. you've followed that race closely. >> it's extraordinary because it speaks to two things. we talked about the overall balance of power in the senate. here is a seat they looked at. thegsd this is a prime only. they basically have to take four or five it to win back the senate. george allen held the seat until 2006. jim webb is retiring. that has moved down for republicans. it's not as likely to flip now.

the campaign isn't going quite as well as they like. the changing demographics, i can't think of state in the country have changed as dramatically virginia. this state had not voted for a democrat until 1964. now we're talking about voting twice in a row for democrats. they had jim webb and tim kaine another democrat going to the senate this year. you had two straight democratic governors before this. >> colorado went from red to blue in five years. it's blue down the ticket. >> um next it's about the benjamins, former chairman sheila bear rereveals what happs and she tells us why it could still happen again. woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for...

the future of our medicare and social security. man 1: i want facts. straight talk. tell me your plan... and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org

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>> our next guess sounded the alarm and her warnings were ignored. she was only woman in the war room during the crisis but said the bailouts were handed out froends. from straight shooting on tim geithner and the president's economic inner circle to real fixes to get us back on track, she has a lot to say in her new book "bull by the horns." in the guest spot is sheila bair former chairperson of the fdic. sheila, welcome, and thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> assert in this book that the bailouts in 2008 and 2009 were overly generous and most of these companies were not, in fact, too big to fail. who gets the blame for that? whose decision was na? >> the underlying philosophy in 2008 and 2009 was that you

stabilize the large financial institutions and make them profitable again, that's going to benefit the broader economy. it didn't work out. i think it's important that we not confuse what's in the big financial institution's interests and what's in the nation's interests. i think there was some confusion there. we did what we had to do, and in 2008 we were in a crisis situation. in 2009 even after the system had stabilized we still continued pretty generous bailout policies, and nobody was ever restructured, closed, forced to sell bad assets, fired. we just didn't impose any builtability on some institutions which contributed to the crisis. >> sheila, please tell me we put stop gaps in place to keep another crisis from happening? >> i think it's better. i think dodd frank is not a perfect law, but it the gave the government and my old agency additional powers we didn't have in 2008 to resolve to close and

put through our bankruptcy-like process any large financial institution. just not an insured baj. most of the institutions getting in trouble were either not insured banks or larger banking organization of which the insured baj was a part. this limitation on authority was an impedement to have morrow bust resolution process. we have those powers now, but they need to be used and the regulators need to use them and the leadership of our government needs to say too big it to fail is over. if this happens again, bailouts are not a new paradigm and won't happen anymore. i don't hear that a lot from either candidate in this election i'm sorry to say. >> yeah. >> sheila, that's the common complaint about dodd-frank, it was watered down so much. when you look back at the process that led to the enact of dodd-frank, who are the people and what are the forces in

particular to blame for that not being what it should be? >> i think as i say in my book, i think tim did -- he did water down a number of the provisions. we had an ongoing struggle with him on the piece of dodd-frank i most cared about, which was to give the fdic the power to put large institutions into a bankruptcy-like process. i had wanted that resolution mechanism, there's an assessment on large financial institutions based on risk taking, which we use for working capital if we had to take a large institution down. i got a $150 billion fund through the hours and he worked with senate republicans to kill it in the senate even though i had assurances from the white house he wouldn't oppose it. he wanted flexibility to continue to do bailouts, and we want strict languages say no bailouts. if you get a stupid institution that made mistakes and failing, it needs to be put in a bankruptcy-type process.

there were fundamental, fill sos cal disagreements with him throughout the crisis. as i've always hastened to say, i think tim always did what he thought was right, but his world view is very different from mine and i think a lot of other people. we really need to differentiate what's in the interest of our country with what's in the interest for these large financial institutions. >> he was wrong about what he thought was right. >> that's good. can can i use that? >> you can have that. you also talked about very personally the extra challenges of being a woman in what is a male-dominated field. talk to me about that. >> it was. a lot of people ask me, was gender -- clearly we were not given the information we needed. we were not always included in the meeting, or when i was included it wasn't the real meeting. the decision was made. i was asked to come in and told this was the decision. you never know. is it gender or something else, people don't like you? i think there was not enough respect given my agency. there was a tendency to think as the fdic as the bank regulators.

we took care of the little people. we dintd understand the big guys. that was a constant struggle to remain in respect for my agency, which was a superb agency. people ask what i'm the most proud of. it's not the bailout but making sure they're protected as we work through 365 bank failures. they had seamless access to money and didn't have to worry about accomplishments. they deserve for credit for it, which is another reason why i wrote this book. >> killing two birds. i got it. the book is bull by the horns. sheila bair, thanks for being with us. up next, toure gets in touch with vulnerability. he actually has some. the author behind "daring greatly" is right here on "the cycle." mom always got good nutrition to taste great.

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[ laughing ] >> i didn't understand one word you had. are you okay? ron, are you okay? ron, where are you? >> i'm in a glass cage of emotion. >> just like me to pick a cartoonish vision of a man expressing emotion to intro a

segment about emotion, because vulnerability scares me. i don't want to be weak. being a man means being strong and showing vulnerability is the opposite of that, right? our next guess says no, it can be empowering. it's dr. renee brown, professor at the university of houston and author of the number one best seller "daring greatly." welcome, dr. brown. how are you? >> good, thank you. that was quite a clip. >> you know, doctor, i don't want to be vulnerable. i feel vulnerable talking about vulnerability. why do i have to be vulnerable? >> i don't want to be vulnerable. you're not alone. mythology says that to be vulnerable is to be weak. the truth is that vulnerability to show up, to be seen, to be all in is probably our most accurate measure of courage.

it is what i call daring greatly. >> you talk also about whole-hearted parenting and try to get us to be the people we want our children to be. can you unpack that for me? >> yeah. i mean, part of my work -- i spent the last 12 years studying the emotions that really define our lives. shame, courage, worthiness, vulnerability. one of the things i've learned that came up over and over is we can't give people what we don't have. so if we want to raise children who have a sense of worthiness, who are willing to take risks, who have some bounce-back, which i think is so important in our culture today, we have to be the adults with those exact same characteristics. we have to believe in ourselves fept kids who believe this themselves. if we want kids willing to dare greatly and take risks where there are no guarantees, we have to be willing to do that. >> is this sort of a modern american phenomenon? in previous generations you have

the strong, silent man. in other cultures today that's more the sort of stoic particularly among men. is this more of a modern american phenomenon, or does this persist throughout the ages? >> no. i think it persists throughout the ages. what's interesting is in 12 years of data i have not found moral courage, leadership courage, relationship courage, not a single example of courage that was not underpinned by deep vulnerability. i mean, vulnerability is simply defined as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. it's putting ourselves out there. it's saying i love you first. it's starting a new business. it's talking -- you know, supporting our child who wants to desperately make first chair in the band and sending her to school saying, good luck and knowing that's probably not going to happen. if we want to be brave, if we want to really put ourselves out

there and try things, we have to risk uncertainty and vulnerability. i think that stoic -- the emotional stow simple that you're talking about in the images of men, the john wayne images, i think that plays out great on film, but i think in real life we feel disconnected and alone and to be honest with you i think in this culture in this day and age we're really tired of being afraid. you know, we're tired of a cultural conversation centering on who am i supposed to fear and who is to blame. i think we want to be brave. i think we want to take a chance and counterintuitively what i have found consistently over a decade is that vulnerability is that path to courage. that's how we dare greatly. >> you know, i'm the political cork here, that's my vulnerable admission, so i will try to bring this back to politics. >> i love it. >> we're in the middle of a presidential race. you look at romney, look at obama.

do you see one who is using vulnerability better to make an impression on voters? >> what i -- you know what i see? i like to follow reaction to things like the conventions, to press conferences. what i see is that, you know, slick and shiny and overpromising does not play well anymore for us. i think we want people who stand -- i think we want to see ourselves reflected in our leaders. we want to see people who say, man, this is hard. there's no easy answers. i wish i could bs you into believing there were, but there are not. here is how i want to move forward, this is what i think is important. i think we're ready for some really deep authenticity, some realness, and we want to see leaders whose lives and struggles are reflected, you know. we want to see ourselves reflected in their stories and experiences. i think we're done.

i think -- i really think, you know, ironically i started my research six months before 9/11, and so it's been a really powerful thing to watch kind of how this -- how we've changed as a culture over time, and i would say probably the word that defines the culture we live in right now the most is scarcity. this idea of never enough. you know, never rich enough, you know, safe enough, and so what i think the way to get around scarcity is believing we're enough and in order to do that we have to dare greatly and put ourselves out there and do some serious old school truth telling. >> some powerful messages there, dr. brown. you gave legendary ted talk. people can find that at ted.com. >> thank you so much. >> straight ahead, krystal explains romney's biggest challenge to winning the election and she says it's not romney. oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters

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president obama and i both care about poor and middle class families. the difference is my policies will make things better for them. >> you know your campaign has hit a low point when you're doing direct to camera ads reassuring the american people that you really do care about the middle class, really. when politico returns a story about your running mate nicknaming you as stench and it's taken as fact. and when newt gingrich is giving you advice, on the merits of his ability to parlay revelations

that he had asked his ex-wife into an open marriage. yes, romney is down nationally by six points. yes, the privileged prep school wall street son of a former governor is pretty much the worst thick you could be in this year of populist anger, and, yes, he is a really, really terrible candidate. in the words of joe scarborough, sweet jesus, he's a horrible politician. the release of romney's comments disparaging half the country as victims who won't take personal responsible for themselves will likely go down as the paftivota moment in this election but really it will lost long ago. >> speaker, you're already shaking your head but who on this stage would walk away from that deal? when you raise your hand, if you feel so strongly about not raising tacks you'd walk away on the ten to one deal?

>> see, the problem here is not really romney. do you think for one second that if he had raised his hand and said, yes, i would raise taxes that he would be the nominee now? no candidate could have satisfied the republican base enough to win the gop primary and gone on to run a campaign broad enough. next week the general election debates start. remember the gop primary debates? there was the time that the audience cheered rick perry's lack of unease at the idea of executing an innocent man. there was the time that the crowd booed a gay soldier who asked about don't ask, don't tell. and the time the audience demanded the uninsured be left to die. in a normal year, a candidate has to thread the needle of playing enough to the base that you win the primary but not going so far afield you can't win over those folks with a slightly less ideological take. this year that task was suppose

up all of his ground in the upcoming debates. maybe just maybe if his performance to date were the real problem, that would be possible. he could benefit from low expectations, turn in the performance of his life and turn this thing around. mitt is not really the problem though. there is no debate performance, no ad, no policy speech that can wash off the stench of gop extremism. all right. that does it for us. martin bashir, what do you think? >> i think i agree, krystal and i'm luking forward to you joining our broadcast. >> i'm looking forward to that, too. >> thank you to the audience for staying with us. it's thursday, september 27th, and it is willard or mitt, mitt or willard? it's all very confusing. >> we're in toledo, right? so it's oh? okay. that's where we are. don't forget, i got everybody in my state insured. >> he's the worst republican in the country to